The Clean Hands of David

667- Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 2Sa 22:21-24 "The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. 22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, And have not wickedly departed from my God. 23 For all His judgments were before me; And as for His statutes, I did not depart from them. 24 I was also blameless before Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. (2 Sam 22:21-24) David seems to be tooting his horn here as he speaks of his righteousness, the cleanness of his hands, keeping the ways of the Lord, etc. Well I don't know about you but it seems to me that David has borrowed someones horn, because this is not the David we have been following in 1 and 2 Samuel! Granted, David was a man after God's own heart but he messed up all the time! Nonetheless, God Himself testified to the righteousness of David and spoke of it in 1Ki 15:5, “David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” Well, at least the sin against Uriah is mentioned, but even it is not held against David! Why not? Well we know that when David was confronted with the word of God in the matter of this sin, he had godly sorrow over it, confessed it, and God forgave him, just as God forgives us when we repent with godly sorrow over our sins. (1 Jn 1:9) I believe the key to understanding this high opinion that God has of David is found in the “kept.” We are told that David “kept” the ways of the Lord. This word shows up repeatedly in both the Old and New Testament and it means to put a hedge around something so as to protect it because it is something that is treasured. This is so key for David and for you and I. God's ways which are written down for us in His Word are to be treasured. Even when David sinned against Uriah, he treasured the correction that came his way through Nathan the prophet. Friend you have messed up, you are messing up today, and you will mess up in the future. This is not a green light for you to wantonly mess up, it's just a reminder to treasure God's Word. Give it the highest place of guidance in your life. Seek to follow it in your daily living, and trust it for the times you slip up, knowing that through faith in Christ you are forgiven and given the clean hands of David.